It’s a force of habit, around these parts, to look ahead to the biggest games in Nebraska’s football season and view lesser opponents in advance of those contests as preparatory fodder. If effort, sacrifice and massive walk-on classes are integral to the “Nebraska Way” so, too, is the mild arrogance that goes along with shucking fools like Arkansas State.

And so, NU’s 38-9 win over the Red Wolves is viewed through the prism of what it means heading into Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech. Since ASU’s multiple, run-oriented offense is quite similar to Tech’s, the looking glass isn’t quite as distorted as it usually would be.

But, still, you have to try to sever connections between the two. The NU team that travels to Blacksburg will be one week smarter and more focused. The Virginia Tech team that awaits has, unfortunately for Nebraska, learned lessons from a 34-24 loss to Alabama, which runs enough of the same plays that the Cornhuskers do to provide a valuable teaching tool.

So in the review, we chart NU’s growth from game No. 1 to No. 2, ask the difficult questions still in search for answers, and look, ever briefly, at the larger picture beyond Virginia Tech to the Big 12 Conference – which suddenly seems more wide open than it did two weeks ago.

Five Players We Loved

Quarterback Zac Lee: It wasn’t just Lee’s efficiency, yardage and touchdowns that were impressive, although they were. It was how he arrived at those numbers. The variety of passes he threw, to 11 different targets, was a kind of dream scenario for the West Coast Offense. While Lee isn’t the tallest guy, his arm strength – coupled with smarts and mobility – allows offensive coordinator Shawn Watson to change the geometry of the field. The WCO often gets the knock – and it’s often earned – of returning to the same handful of pass plays, most of which are controlled dinks and dunks. Sam Keller, and to some degree Zac Taylor, fell into that rut at times. With Lee, Watson has few limits. Maybe inside screen passes, which are hard to run with Lee’s lack of height. Otherwise – not much.

Kickoff specialist Adi Kunalic: Talk about a secret weapon. Kunalic had five touchbacks on Saturday, consistently forcing Arkansas State to march the long field. And, against the wind, he showed off a nasty little stinger kick that ASU’s return men struggled to handle. Kunalic appears, at most, ten times per game. But he’s worth the scholarship.

Wide receiver Niles Paul: The junior from Omaha needed a game like this to shake off the expectations, to shake off the eyes of his hometown – don’t kid yourself, the Omaha media was all over the kid after the game – and to show off that explosiveness everyone’s been talking about. Once Paul has as much confidence in himself as his coaches do, watch out. With less to prove, he’ll explode even more.

Cornerback Prince Amukamara: He did the little stuff on Saturday. He blitzed aggressively. He stoned a couple ASU receivers right after they made a catch. He stuck his nose in the pile on two running plays. When I watch defensive backs on Sunday, I like the Vikings’ Cedric Griffin and Antoine Winfield, the baddest, most physical corners in the NFL. They’re not elite cover men, but they make up for it in sheer attitude at the line of scrimmage. Amukamara has the size and speed to be that kind of player. If he wants it.

Strong safety Larry Asante: His coverage skills won’t be fully tested until the Missouri game, but Asante is a legitimate physical force against the run. He’s grown skilled at the punch-out tackle, apparently, causing one fumble on Saturday. But Asante’s put together two pretty good games of hits thus far. Now if he can just catch an interception.

Three Concerns We Still Have

Leaky Line, Walking Wounded: It’s conceivable that NU could start two backups – Derek Meyer and Mike Caputo – at Virginia Tech. Nothing against either, but it’ll be nice if center Jacob Hickman and left guard Keith Williams are close to 100 percent next Saturday. And even then, you have to wonder about NU’s short-yardage run blocking. At the point of attack, both Arkansas State and Florida Atlantic have won some of the trench wars. A little disconcerting.

Defensive confusion: We’re still seeing Nebraska’s defense unsettled just before the opponent’s snap. While Bo and Carl Pelini want to match up personnel as much as possible in a lightning round of chess, we’ve seen the Huskers’ front four practically standing at the snap, awaiting instructions. MIKE linebacker Will Compton is young, but he’s got to be more urgent toward the sidelines when the call is slow to come in. Maybe such assertiveness comes with experience.

Dumb penalties: Not every personal foul is a borderline judgment call by the referee. Nebraska has five through two games. How much longer can NU afford to give up precious field position in a fit of aggression, frustration or just plain foolishness?

Reviewing the Five Keys

The Buzz Word, Tempo: Nebraska zipped in and out of its huddle, rarely got close to the end of the play clock, and seemed especially sharp in the first quarter. Mission accomplished.

Lead Wolf: ASU quarterback Corey Leonard never strayed too far from the watchful eye of NU’s defense, which sacked him four time. The Red Wolves took few to zero chances in the passing game, and Leonard didn’t break any long runs.

Lanes: For the most part, Nebraska stayed disciplined in getting after Leonard. It helped that the Brothers Pelini dialed up smart corner blitzes that kept Leonard guessing. The best of them, with junior Eric Hagg screaming like a missile on a delayed blitz, left Leonard in the possum position – lying down on the turf, before Hagg ever got there.

The Edges: NU’s receivers dominated ASU’s defensive backs, frankly. The Huskers got open, stayed open, and fought for yards after contact. They block well, caught well, and generally made Ted Gilmore look like a pretty smart guy. Through two games.

Mix tape: Nebraska didn’t run much, but Watson effectively mixed in a variety of ground plays. A little option, a nifty reverse, two quarterback counters for Lee; he put a few things on tape for Virginia Tech to think about. This is a better-designed offense right now than it was a year ago.

Three Questions We Still Have

How do NU’s receivers hold up against a first-class secondary? They’re pretty good against the Sun Belt, but can they get open against the best defensive backs in the ACC? Alabama managed it, but remember: The Tide has freak Julio Jones, whom the Hokies chose to bracket in double coverage most of the night. What kind of problems, if any, can the Huskers pose?

Can a downhill running game crunch the Big Red? We’ve seen FAU and Arkansas State look right at NU’s seven-man front and shove a couple isolation plays right down the Huskers’ gullet. Defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Jared Crick make their share of plays, but they’re pushed out of others. Can Virginia Tech, and Missouri, and Kansas, and Oklahoma, gash Nebraska right in the kisser? We haven’t seen very compelling evidence to the contrary thus far. NU linebackers, especially Compton, have to step aggressively into the hole.

How emotionally mature are the Huskers? We’re about to find out. Maybe. The strength of the 2008 team – and a weakness of the 2007 squad – was internal fortitude, the willingness to wipe the slate clean after bad plays, and work for those good plays. But, last year, Nebraska didn’t truly grow up until embarrassing itself at Oklahoma. The personal fouls are not a good sign. Pelini’s motor runs hot. So does his team’s. But it can’t run in the red. Not on the road. Not in the Big 12.

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Zac Lee showed us, didn’t he? He stuck a week’s worth of our chatter, stinky socks and all, right back in our mouths.

We reporters drooled over Cody Green’s 49-yard, fourth-quarter run vs. Florida Atlantic. The talk even got NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson to admit Friday at a Big Red Breakfast that Green might get some first-half snaps if he earns them.

But Lee’s first-half stat line – 15-19 for 183 yards and two touchdowns – threw water on that fire.

Then check out his whole stat line: 27-of-35 for 340 yards, four touchdowns and nary a pick. You’ll take that with a side of ranch, won’t you? Two 80-yard drives to put ASU in the hole. Another long drive before half. Two more scoring drives in the second half for good measure. A 69-yard touchdown pass to Niles Paul that was called back because of a holding penalty.

Lee dazzled Husker fans with every tool in his box. The arm strength. The sixth sense of when to scramble. Ball-handling skills. The touch on deep throws to Curenski Gilleylen and Mike McNeill. Moving the huddle along. Nabbing some crappy snaps from center Jacob Hickman. Taking a couple hard sacks when NU’s protection fell apart.

Watson couldn’t stop gushing.

“He was unbelievable,” Watson said. “He’s a great student. The kid’s really good. Really good.”

Even when Lee made a mistake – such as an ill-advised toss over defensive end Alex Carrington early in the third quarter – Carrington was only able to tip the ball into the waiting hands of Niles Paul, who hauled it in for a 20-yard gain.

Hey – when it goes right, it goes right.

Lee said offensive coordinator Shawn Watson often asks his him: Which passes will get you in a rhythm?

The quarterback answer: “Whatever you want to call. Hopefully I’ll kind of wake up on a rhythm on game day.”

Saturday, Lee woke up to a moveable feast.

Watson dialed up the deep balls. And Lee took his shots. Corner routes. Fades. Stop-and-go routes. Play-action.You name them, Lee threw them. Maybe too many of them; NU wasted some second-half scoring chances by trying to hit home runs on second-and-short, instead of putting drives together like it did in the first half.

“We just took what they gave us,” Watson said. “If they were going to play a run defense – it’s pretty easy when you just sit up there and see it. You just go past them. They’re challenging you – you go past them. We were able to do that.”

You’d better believe NU will be packing the same gameplan when it heads to Virginia Tech. The Hokies make a living off daring quarterbacks to beat them. Defensive coordinator Bud Foster will throw his eight men in the box, lunch pails in tow, and trust his skilled secondary to win more battles than it loses.

Week in and week out, that’s the Foster way. In Tech’s season’s opening game, Alabama beat it with the help of a vicious defense that kept allowing the Tide’s offense opportunities to chip away. Bama quarterback Greg McElroy got thrown to the synthetic turf of the Georgia Dome for a half. He looked bad. But he got tough, and made just enough deep completions to sink the Hokies.

So you hope NU packs the Zac Lee we all saw on Saturday and takes him in Blacksburg, too. For let’s face it: Beyond acknowledging Lee’s work, we have to be done with it. He has to be done with it. The toughest road test a brand new quarterback could ever want to face awaits him.

And Lee will need a little more help than he got Saturday.

Yes, there were cracks and fissures. Nebraska’s offensive line failed to consistently protect Lee; he was sacked twice and flushed out of the pocket three or four more times. The running game plodded along as Roy Helu struggled to find some holes. Some other holes, he overran. Helu is a mixmaster of moves, but he made a couple too many on Saturday.

The defense – facing an offense quite similar to Virginia Tech’s – tackled poorly. At times very poorly. When the secondary does the best job of hitting and wrapping up, that’s a recipe for trouble on the road, especially when the Hokies have a redshirt freshman running back, Ryan Williams, that’s as good as any on the East Coast.

“We’ve just got to be more physical,” said defensive coordinator Carl Pelini, who seemed like he wanted to start preparing for Tech that very second. “I’d like to see how many yards after contact they had. We didn’t tackle real well today. That’s something we’re going to get fixed.

Penalties cropped up again. Negated one touchdown, and help set up ASU with oceanfront properity for its only score. Defensive calls from the sideline were either late, or poorly communicated. Four or five times I saw NU’s defensive line standing up just seconds before the ball was snapped. Hard to play low from that position, isn’t it?

So we’ll see. But I like Lee’s demeanor through two games. He’s very confident on the field – you can see it in the chances he takes – and tougher than his smallish frame might suggest.

To reporters, he doesn’t say much. His post-game comments lasted all of five minutes. If the “Green chatter” bothered him this week, you didn’t notice. Whether he played this week with something to prove, he didn’t admit. He’s got a good poker face.

When asked what he thought of ESPN announcer Ron Franklin, who mistook Lee for Zac Robinson in a situation too convoluted and pointless to rehash, Lee doused the question properly: “It happens. Not a big deal.”

It happens, yes, but there’s one way to make sure it never does again: Play like this again, next Saturday in Blacksburg.

“That’s the fun of college football,” Lee said. “It’ll be a great atmosphere. Hopefully we play well. I think the team is really, really looking forward to the opportunity, especially after what happened here last year.”

Said Watson: “This dude’s a cool customer. He’s a ballplayer. None of that stuff’s going to bother him…he gets it. He’s been around it his whole life.”

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Quarterback controversy? Not around here.

By the time Nebraska’s defense started to bend Saturday against Arkansas State, NU junior Zac Lee’s right arm had already broken the Red Wolves with series of deep, accurate strikes in the heart of their secondary.

Lee completed 8 of his first 9 passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns to help stake NU to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter. From that point forward, the run-oriented Arkansas State couldn’t muster enough momentum to get much closer in a 38-9 Nebraska win.

“I really liked the way we came out,” head coach Bo Pelini said. “We attacked. I thought we played really well offensively. To start the game, I loved the energy we came out with.”

While Lee had a fair debut in a 49-3 win over Florida Atlantic, his play was overshadowed, to some extent, by a single 49-yard run from true freshman Cody Green.

No such dilemma on Saturday. Lee completed 27-of-35 passes for 340 yards and four touchdowns. He personally found 11 different receivers, and made every throw in the book – including a couple nifty shovel passes.

“It was a good day,” Lee understated. “Hopefully it’s that way every week. That’s kind of my goal.”

Lee and his teammates have a much stiffer test at Virginia Tech next Saturday. But for one game, he couldn’t have been much more efficient.

Said NU offensive coordinator Shawn Watson: “I loved everything that happened. Zac was just lights out. That’s a great performance.”

A crowd of 85,035 at Memorial Stadium sat thrilled and dazzled by Lee’s first-quarter performance. On Nebraska’s opening drive, he converted an early third down with an 11-yard pass to Mike McNeill, scrambled for 11 yards and threw a perfect 46-yard lob to receiver Curenski Gilleylen before finishing the drive with a three-yard flip to fullback Tyler Legate to cap the 80-yard touchdown march.

On the second drive, Lee hit all five passes for 54 yards, the last of which was another perfectly thrown lob to tight end Mike McNeill for a 13-yard touchdown.

“We had guys get open,” Lee said. “It’s easy to throw to open guys.”

Niles Paul then scored on a 30-yard reverse one minute into the second quarter for a 21-0 lead. Paul took the pitch from Lee and ran back toward NU’s sideline, toeing the chalk for the last ten yards.

“We had it on our script,” Paul said, “and I just blew it off like ‘we’re not going to run that, we have it on script every week since last year. But we finally ran it. And I was happy.”

Those first 16 minutes were NU’s best in recent memory, dating back, possibly, to 2006. Pelini said he challenged his team throughout the week, after another sluggish start vs. Florida Atlantic, to hit the ground running vs. ASU.

Mission accomplished. The Huskers outgained the Red Wolves 206-39 in that span, and left a run-based with little chance for a comeback.

“We came out of the gates well,” center Jacob Hickman said. “That’s something we wanted to make sure we did, to set the tempo of the game.”

Arkansas State then scored on a 32-yard touchdown drive after an NU punt and a 15-yard facemack penalty on safety Rickey Thenarse. The Red Wolves missed the extra point. The Huskers tacked on a 29-yard field goal from Alex Henery right before halftime.

In the second half, Nebraska scored quickly after an ASU punt, as Lee hit McNeill again, this time on a 32-yard fade route for a touchdown. In the fourth quarter, he found Paul for a two-yard score, setting up the touchdown with a 27-yard pass to tight end Dreu Young.

Nebraska had 494 total yards, the 16th time in 20 games, NU went over the 400-yard mark.

“They played a whole lot faster than we did overall,” ASU coach Steve Roberts said. “I think that was a big difference in the game, their speed advantage.”

The Red Wolves (1-1) averaged more than four yards per carry and amassed total yards, but only converted 2 of 10 third down attempts in the first three quarters.

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